Govt ignores polio in remote provinces

Govt ignores polio in remote provinces

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the success of the recent third round of polio
vaccinations, the government has shown little commitment to
boosting low vaccination rates in the remote provinces of Papua,
West Irian and North Maluku.

"We actually want to vaccinate all the children in those
areas, but they are difficult to reach ... In my personal
opinion, I don't think polio exists there anyway," Minister of
Health Siti Fadilah Supari said late last week after delivering
the third polio vaccination report.

Siti said she was optimistic the areas were disease free
because she had received no reports of polio there.

"It just so happens, that there are no polio patients in
Papua, nor Yahukimo regency, which recently reported famine
cases. Children are running around healthily there," she said.

According to Ministry of Health data, there were 295 cases of
polio from April to December in 10 of the country's 33 provinces
-- Banten with 161 cases, West Java (59), Lampung (25), Central
Java (20), North Sumatra (10), South Sumatra (5), East Java (5),
Jakarta (4), Aceh (3) and Riau (3).

During the last vaccination program in November, these 10
provinces are estimated to have vaccinated between 90 percent and
100 percent of at-risk children.

However, the ministry report said North Maluku could only
vaccinate 86.4 percent of its 84,190 targeted children, with West
Irian at 73.8 percent of 64,594 recorded children and Papua a
mere 50.3 percent of 143,918 children.

Siti said it would be difficult for the polio virus to spread
to these remote provinces because they were extremely difficult
to reach.

"It is less likely that the polio virus would arrive there.
People have to struggle to the death to reach these areas. Even a
helicopter cannot take us to some of the remote villages in these
provinces," she said.

If the government wanted to boost the vaccination rates in
these areas, Siti said the polio eradication team would need its
transportation budget increased. The government, in line with a
recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), plans to
launch two additional nationwide polio vaccination programs in
January and February next year in a bid to eradicate the
crippling disease by March 2006.

"To hire a plane with six passengers for a trip to remote
areas in Papua will cost you Rp 30 million," Siti said.

WHO Indonesia country representative Georg Peterson said while
polio had not yet been found in many provinces, this should not
be a reason to leave children under five unvaccinated.

"For remote areas, the routine vaccinations of newborn babies
should be strengthened," he told The Jakarta Post.

The chairman of the Indonesian Health Consumer Empowerment
Foundation, Marius Widjajarta, dismissed Siti's argument, saying
that the virus could travel anywhere, even to the most remote
areas on the planet.

"The Constitution says that it is our citizens' right,
including the Moluccans' and Papuans' right, to live a healthy
life. Therefore, the government will have to work hard to at
least vaccinate 90 percent of the children there," he said.

The country's latest polio outbreak came after it was free of
the disease for about 10 years. Some health experts believe the
virus spread to Indonesia from northern Nigeria, a country that
still has polio.

To achieve the 90-percent vaccination target, Marius urged the
government to enable staff at community health centers
(Puskesmas), integrated health service posts (Posyandu) and new
graduates of medicine schools to support vaccination drives in
the three provinces.